Emily Stover DeRocco Speech

Montgomery County Workforce Investment Board
9th Annual Workforce & Economic Development Awards
Thursday, October 30, 2003

Thank you, Eric. And thank you, Dewey, for inviting me to speak this morning and Congressman Wynn for participating in this event.

It is a real pleasure for me to be here this morning to congratulate and recognize this very deserving group of award winners. Throughout the ages, philosophers and social scientists have observed that excellence is not a singular, spectacular act, but rather a habit. We are what we repeatedly do. Today's honorees certainly have formed the habit of excellence by giving their best every day to this community and its citizens. Thank you for what you do -- your example is an inspiration to all of us.

Montgomery County, too, has developed the habit of excellence in its workforce development activities. You really have your act together when it comes to meeting the needs of today's employers, and you are putting in place the right combination of training, education, and economic investment that will attract the employers of the future. I congratulate you for your leadership in this area.

I want to take special note of the awards being given today that recognize the critical role that disabled individuals play in our workforce. The work you are doing in this area is not just a reflection of your commitment to meet the needs of workers with special needs; it is also a far-sighted recognition of the fact that our economy needs the talents and participation of every worker if it is to continue to grow and prosper.

We're here today because we share an overarching goal -- to ensure that every available worker has the education, training, and skills to fill the jobs of the 21st century -- and that no worker is left behind.

At the Department of Labor, we are working toward this goal by bringing together all the public and private resources devoted to employment, education and economic development. We call this linkage the "power of e-three." Our goal is to produce the kind of individual advancement that equals progress for the nation as a whole.

What sort of resources do we bring to the task? At the federal level we invest $15 billion each year in education, employment and job training services delivered through the public workforce system. That's more than enough to make a difference - if we use the resources as efficiently and effectively as possible.

Our challenge, then, in practical terms is to be the matchmakers to the markets of the future - training today for the jobs and opportunities of tomorrow. Our High-Growth Job Training Initiative does just that. It's based on a simple and straightforward premise: the workforce system must be demand-driven, and our workforce development programs must be aimed at real opportunities that exist now, as well as those that will exist in the future.

What might those jobs and opportunities be?

You might be surprised by the answer. When we look back one hundred years, we find that many, if not most Americans were working in jobs and industries that don't exist anymore. American innovation, invention, and entrepreneurial risk-taking replaced the industries and jobs of the past with new and better jobs and more efficient and productive industries. That process fueled America's economic prosperity, and that process continues today.

Over the past decade, Montgomery County proved to be a leader in fostering one of these new industries: information technology. Now that information technology is an integral part of our jobs and our lives, 92% of the 1 million new jobs created in information technology will be in non-IT companies. Every business from Bethesda Naval Hospital to the local McDonald's is in need of skilled IT workers.

Another of the growth industries is the geospatial technology industry, a cluster of commercial activities growing out of the Global Positioning System that certainly helps me every time I find myself in a rental car in an unfamiliar city, and is providing untold benefits to our servicemen and women in faraway places like Afghanistan and Iraq. And, Montgomery County is uniquely qualified to focus on the geospatial industry with the headquarters of one of the world's leading geospatial companies, Lockheed Martin, right in Bethesda.

While geospatial and information technology offer emerging career opportunities in cutting edge industries, a much more traditional industry is expecting unprecedented job growth. Today, the health care field accounts for about 13 percent, or $1 trillion, of our annual GDP, and provides more than 11 million jobs. With the baby boomers approaching retirement, and people living longer today than every before, the need for skilled workers to provide medical care will increase substantially. Take a look at the projections of the 20 fastest growing occupations and you'll find 9 of 20 in the health care field.

This explosive job growth does not account for the many openings that are currently available. Health care, geospatial, information technology, and many other fields are experiencing significant worker shortages because there aren't enough available people who have the training to fill the jobs. And while many of the jobs do require a four-year degree, in plenty of cases, a two-year degree from a community college or technical institution - or an apprenticeship that combines on-the-job training with some classroom instruction - can prepare workers for the high-skill, high-wage positions these industries offer.

That's why we are working closely with community colleges, secondary and technical schools, and apprenticeship programs to match the programs they offer with the skills America's emerging industries need. I know this is one of Montgomery County's top priorities as well, and your efforts are paying off for the county's employees and employers.

At the federal level, we also are working closely with communities, like this one, to leverage the value of their investments in economic development and growth. And we are working closely with the business community to make sure that the workforce investment system is helping to train people for the jobs they need to fill if they are to grow and remain competitive in an increasingly global economy.

Finally, we're proposing legislative changes to the Workforce Investment Act to make the public workforce system more effective and flexible. When first enacted, the WIA was a groundbreaking piece of legislation that sparked dramatic improvements in the delivery of employment and training services nationwide. Now we need to get the system reauthorized as a demand-driven system that is effective and responsive to the needs of local labor markets in the 21st century

In his speech on Labor Day, President Bush expressed his optimism in America's future - an optimism he says stems from what he has seen of the American spirit -- "the determination and the will, the willingness to work hard, the willingness to place family above self, and the willingness to serve something greater than your self." Today's award winners certainly exemplify these virtues. Through hard work, and a willingness to serve others, you have made excellence a habit. I congratulate you on your achievement and thank you for your example.